Tuesday, March 27, 2012

American Idol David Cook Lists Beachwood Canyon Crib

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We are all but down for the count with an ugly post-vacation cold so it's short and sweet-snarky this morning.

Your Mama feels no shame in confessing to all 7 people who could give a shit that we stopped watching American Idol a long time ago. We bravely stuck it out all the way through season three and the first couple of episodes of season four. At that point we could suffer not a moment more of the karaoke-like Top 40 pop music extravaganza. It all became like nails on a chalkboard and no amount of gin would or could numb the pain.We don't mean any disrespect to any of the wildly talented contestants but our musical zebra stripes just ain't painted that way. We warble potaytoe, you sing potahtoe.

Anyhoo, given that state of affairs we really didn't and still don't know a damn thing about 29-year old season 7 winner David Cook other than the few rather vanilla tidbits we dug up during 3 quick minutes of research on the interweb. By all accounts the gee-tar playing singer/songwriter is a genuinely sincere, stand up fella whose first post-Idol album—the eponymous David Cook—went platinum. A framed version of said eponymous platinum album appears in listing photos hanging irksomely off-center over the large bed in the master bedroom of the Los Angeles, CA crib Mister Cook put up for sale last week with an asking price of $1,495,000.

Property records show Texas-born and Missouri-raised Mister Cook scooped up his hillside clinging house set on a twisty street high above the historic, charming and just slightly quirky Beachwood Canyon in March 2010 for $1,318,000.

Current listing information shows the updated house, which Your Mama might describe as an oxymoronic multi-level contemporary ranch, was originally built in 1979, measures just over 3,000 square feet—3,071 to be exact—and includes a total of three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms on three floors. At least some rooms and a fair amount of the decks the run along and beside the back of the house are lucky enough to have a quintessentially Los Angeles view across the steep, dwelling dotted ravines of the canyon with sweeping and direct views of both the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Park Observatory.
A wall, gated and landscaped courtyard provides a narrow but private buffer from the street with a fountain, fruit tree or two and a separately gated, landing strip-like run of lawn perfect for penning pooches and small children. Geometrically applied wood-paneling lines the walls of the inset porch and lends the entry a rather thrilling Op art edge, a rich motif we wish had been mined and curated both architecturally and decoratively throughout the house but, alas, was not.

Lustrous and relatively new-looking hardwood floors run under foot throughout the main/street level where the barely there foyer spills into the rectangular living room with vaulted ceiling, wall-mounted flat screen tee-vee, and a stacked stone two-sided fireplace pushed up into the corner of the room next to the sliding glass doors that open the deck that runs long the top floor rear of the residence.

A long dining room lined with sliding glass doors and tree-top canyon views out the back of the house connects to the unexpectedly sizable center island kitchen outfitted with simple flat-fronted wood cabinets, toffee and cream-colored granite counter tops and back splashes, a wide greenhouse window over the main sink (ugh!), a long row of floor-to-ceiling pantry and storage cabinets, and a full coterie of top-grade commercial-style stainless steel appliances.

The privately situated master suite takes up the entire mid-level and contains a decent-sized bedroom with fireplace—a mirrored identical to the one in the living room—a very beige and somewhat slender-looking attached bathroom with double sinks. One more flight down there are, as per listing information, two family/guest bedrooms, one full bathroom, and what listing information describes as a "professionally designed recording studio (or convert to an amazing home theatre) with both exterior and in-home entrances,..." Somewhere in the house there's a "Custom laundry area with built in Miele washer & dryer," which sounds pretty nice.

We have nada inside intel about Mister Cooks real estate motivations and plans but perhaps he's headed back to his family roots in The Show Me State of Missouri where Your Mama's brief and entirely unscientific online research turned up a few dribs and drabs about Mister Cook also owning a very suburban-looking abode in a perfectly ordinary, un-gated planned development in Lee's Summit on the outskirts of Kansas City. But honestly, children, we can't really say for sure if he does or does not.

I love those floors in the kitchen! The raised sinks in the bathroom look cool too, but I'm worried that they would eventually date the house. They're really popular, but do you think people will still be putting them in 10 years from now?

Mama, this guy is one of the better American Idol winners, both as concerns musical abilities and in terms of the persona he developed on the show and has honed since his winning season. I wish David well and hope someone snaps up this not-so-shabby casa at his asking price, pronto.

i live in a "classic williamsburg" home in virginia, and it would never occur to me to call this home "slutty" even though its style is vastly different. did this particular poster grow up in an eastern european ghetto? a slum outside buenos aires? the comment is idiodic.

I guess some ppl just don't have any interest in Music. David Cook is one of the few to have real talent from AI. I am sure David Cook is doing just fine he is a very gifted composer and musician with enough talent to make a great living.